The Beginning of the End

At the moment I just don't have the heart to blog, to do any creative writing at all. The nature that used to be all around the space surrounding our house is slowly being destroyed to make way for brick-lined patios and backyard play space for screaming children. My mom is permanently ensconced in a nursing home. And the country... well, goodness only knows what will happen to the once-lofty ideals of the USA in the next four years. If Robin and I are very careful we might be able to tough this out, but he's not a citizen and neither of us are Christians. So Canada is looking good for retirement, maybe even England, but it's a matter of financial stability. So right now I feel like I'm in a holding pattern, and all I can do to take my mind off things is work and leisure activities. And half of those are gone, as I wiped all the back-posts off my blog reader and don't really feel Facebook-y right now. I might start my drawing lessons again, just as AI looms to replace all meaningful creative endeavor. I might actually begin reading full-length books once more. But writing, blogging, stuff like that? Well, tune in tomorrow, I suppose.

USA, Nice While It Lasted

Well, it's all over. Our modern-day Caligula not only won the electoral college votes but the popular votes of millions of scared and deluded white people, our fellow citizens-turned-cultists, and I fear there's no way to recover from this. I'm nearing retirement (will I still even have Social Security and Medicare?), the Yonkers neighbors are paving paradise and putting in a parking lot (looks like a concrete party space is coming) right outside my home office window, my mom may not be long for this world, and nothing is keeping us here now. I need to meet with a retirement specialist soon and try to figure out if we can move to Canada or, preferably, the UK and get away from what's to come... except, of course, that what's to come will affect the entire world. It's hard to see any silver lining here. Most of us believed him the first time he showed us who he was. Will he ever cede power? Will his enemies be executed? I wouldn't put anything past him. I weep for Ukraine and Israel and Gaza and every other place with decent people, but mostly I weep for those of us unable to understand and counteract our neighbors' fear and stupidity. I've been going through various stages of grief for awhile now with Mom's situation, now I'm just kind of numb from it all. But we need to carry on, because we have no choice. So I immerse myself in work and computer games and other distractions and hope against hope that sanity and reality will prevail despite the odds.

Silly Site o' the Day

It's Election Day in the US, and we're hoping for the best and... well, I don't even know how to prepare for the worst as one candidate is an existential threat to pretty much the entire world. So I'm keeping busy at the office, and Robin's keeping busy at home. Today we found out that our landline has been automatically forwarding calls to Optimum's online answering machine (not even our own!) for about a week, which means we've missed all incoming calls. I'm grateful we haven't heard the political spam ones, but there was at least one from my uncle I would have liked to have heard. Everything's all fixed now, and I'll be making a couple outgoing calls tomorrow to make sure everyone knows what happened. I think we're moving closer to a cell-only life, probably when I retire. In the meantime, enjoy this ballot-box stand-up comedy.

Silly Site o' the Day

Whew, my new credit card came in today to replace the one that had a teeny tiny (like $10) fraudulent charge on it last week. I now have it it set up on all the usual places, updated auto-pay stuff, all that jazz. It was surprisingly easy, thanks to the list I now keep of where my credit card is used for auto-pay stuff (EZ Pass and the like) and my in-house IT person. Robin and I still can't figure out how to verify one of my other cards on my iPhone or Apple Watch, but I do still carry the physical cards with me so that's not a big deal. I feel settled again, at least for now. Maybe I'll go outside tomorrow and watch the birds with Birdcast (via PZ Myers).

Silly Site o' the Day

Okay, it could have been too much hot sauce in yesterday's pseudo-salsa, or this morning's scrambled eggs, but my stomach and thus the rest of my body paid the price for much of the day, including the gamut of chills and sweats, so I laid low and got as many naps in as I could. I hate when I'm both hungry and not hungry at the same time. At this point I don't even care what my body fat spirit animal is...

Silly Site o' the Day

The right leg is starting to improve, but of course I was behind the wheel again, albeit only locally to get gas and do our shopping. Otherwise nothing to report, except different kinds of "graveyards" (via Cathy from Canada)...

Silly SIte o' the Day

White Rabbits! With the weather still far too balmy, we took advantage to visit what will turn out to be the last stop in Riverdale Restaurant Week, a fairly famous Jewish deli that ended up with Robin cracking a tooth. Dental appointment all made, and in the meantime we'll be having a quiet weekend at home while my right leg continues to recover (fortunately neither last night's impromptu walk from the express to the local bus as well as today's walk between the bus and the deli seemed to do the leg much harm). Work was fine, but I think my file extensions are going on a folder vacation:

Via Laughing Squid.

Silly Site o' the Day

Happy Hallowe'en! I don't really celebrate per se any more, having grown up with a family mistakenly believing it was a Christian holiday (rather than a pagan holiday co-opted by Christians) so I never did things like trick or treating; mobility issues means I can't stand around and watch the West Village parade; and I suck at costumes. So I wore Hallowe'en earrings because I have earrings for just about any occasion, Hallowe'en socks, and an orange madras shirt because the weather was freakishly (global climate change-ly) warm, and nobody made any comments but I got lots of bad-for-me sugary candy, and even a scare. My homeward-bound bus apparently scraped another vehicle while making a turn at its first dropoff and was taken out of service. No injuries but it meant I had to walk a block up Broadway and get the local bus, for which there was fortunately almost no wait time. In fact, a bus pulled up with an Out of Service notice which quickly changed to a route number, so it was fairly empty when I boarded and quite possibly got me home sooner than the express bus would have. We don't get any trick or treaters here, and the house next door is having an outdoor party for the holiday, so for the first time in years I'll be sleeping with earplugs. Here are some scary Disney makeovers to send you to sleep...

Silly Site o' the Day

Thank goodness I worked from home today as a very bad car crash closed the main artery my bus uses in this neighborhood. All was cleared by dinner time, when I opted to drive the four semi-short blocks to the local fancy-shmancy place celebrating restaurant week. The food was very rich but very delicious, I've now showered, spoken with my brother about Mom in the nursing home, caught up on finances, and settled in to watch the Yankees in Game 5 of the World Series, where so far they're beating the Dodgers and hoping to force a Game 6 in LA. I think I've exhausted myself just typing all of that! Here, relax with another Randy Rainbow:

Now back to the game!

Silly Site o' the Day

A very productive day, in which I helped out my supervisor by beta-testing a site he helped design, and that took the last hour before I had to leave early for a primary care-suggested skin test at a local dermatologist's office. My skin is just fine, I'm finally rid of the large skin tag on my neck, and then I read my email and apparently there's a fraudulent charge on my credit card. I figured it was probably from the meal at the diner a couple days ago, so I was not in the mood to celebrate Riverdale Restaurant Week tonight with that hanging over me. The charge has now been reported and a new card is on its way, but I'm prepared with the list of places where I have to update it as well as an alternate payment plan for any other restaurants we visit this week (my Capital One card that I just remembered I used during the last restaurant week, and which I need to maintain or it'll go inactive). And lo and behold, it appears the Yankees look like they might win tonight's game, which means one more game at Yankee Stadium tomorrow! Say, I haven't posted any Randy Rainbow in awhile, have I?

Enjoy!

Silly Site o' the Day

Today's Riverdale Restaurant Week pick was a bit closer to home, as Robin needed to ship something via UPS and I thought it best to drive a few blocks so he didn't have to carry it to the shipment place, and eat at our local steakhouse while we were there. Of course, since it was lunch hour I was naturally interrupted by work texts from one of my partners who has a knack of texting me during lunch hour pretty much daily, but nothing I couldn't handle once I returned. So far the leg is recovering but way too slowly, and I don't look forward to my medical appointment tomorrow as walking there from the office will be a lot of wear and tear on my body. And I'm giving up on the Yankees once again and going to bed. Ah well, it's been a good season. But now it's time for Hallowe'en:

Via Laughing Squid.

Silly Site o' the Day

Still tired from yesterday, I decided to participate in Riverdale Restaurant Week for dinner instead of lunch and give my right leg a bit of a break. Also, the Liverpool game was on during lunch hour so that was incentive to stay in even though they drew. We went down to the South Riverdale area where we used to live to try the diner we occasionally frequented, now under new management with a new name and decor, and I had a very palatable dish of chicken kebobs (preceded by matzoh ball soup), so no complaints so far. Tomorrow we stick closer to home. For now, it's time for bed before the lazy dog ghosts get me.

Silly Site o' the Day

A jam-packed day today, starting with exercising my franchise on the first day of early voting in New York. And oh, was my early-vote polling place crowded! I almost wept with joy, as a large turnout these days almost inevitably means tons of votes for Democrats, but then I'm in a very blue city in a somewhat blue state so that part is no surprise. Then off to visit Mom in the nursing home to which she's finally been transferred. Very fancy, almost like a hotel, and I hope we can all make her comfortable in her remaining days. My California brother supervised the final move, and we've now reconnected after not really having had contact for a half dozen years, so I think that bodes well. It's not going to be easy for any of us to bid Mom farewell, but her decline has been such that she's no longer the Mom she was even a few months ago, so we should be grateful she's been around and alert for 93 years. After that brief visit (Mom was drifting off to sleep and the room had to be around 85 degrees) We then attended the annual reunion party of my college fraternity (the co-ed service frat Alphi Phi Omega), which was coincidentally about 20 minutes away from the nursing home, but easily 90+ minutes from our home. So in addition to the emotional highs and lows I now have to deal with the physical pain induced from so much repeated driving (and especially the traffic slowdowns approaching the GW Bridge) in the last couple of months. The outside of right shin is already seizing up again (shin splint?) and the referred pain will go right to my heel, which hasn't yet recovered from Tuesday's stress. Also, the Yankees are losing the second game of the World Series, so that doesn't help my mood. I need a quiet week of staying off my feet and doing nothing, but it's Riverdale Restaurant Week now so that's not going to happen. At least I can take buses (local for the restaurants, express for my Manhattan days) instead of driving this week! I just hope there's no food trickery involved:

Via Laughing Squid.

Silly Site o' the Day

Thanks to my brother from CA, Mom is now settled into her long-term care facility, and I look forward to seeing her tomorrow. Busy day ahead, doing the early-voting thing then shopping, then off to NJ for a Mom visit and a college frat reunion. Then maybe I can rest for awhile? My foot is doing a little better thanks to a cramp in the night and Robin massaging the post-cramp area this afternoon; at least I was able to pinpoint where things were amiss. I have almost full mobility back, hope I don't backslide after all the driving I'll be doing. Off to watch the World Series in the meantime, while you enjoy these very scary pumpkins.

Silly Site o' the Day

Off to the bus in the dark, home from the bus in the dark. I love autumn, even how it smells when the leaves lose their chlorophyll, but I'm not quite as fond as I used to be of walking (or driving!) in the dark. At least I can see things at lunchtime, which today consisted of a couple bad decisions courtesy of a local street fair. Those soup dumplings were neither soupy nor very dumpling-like; second time I've fallen for that place in as many street fairs. Anyway, plenty to eat throughout the day, enough work to keep me on my toes, and now I'm back and relaxing as the temps drop. Oh, speaking of light and dark, here's an interesting overview on the creation of holograms.

Silly Site o' the Day

Between the overuse of the car at my age and the general anxiety over Mom's situation, my body keeps giving out in peculiar places. At the moment it's my right heel, which is actually referred pain from somewhere in the calf. All I can do at this point is brace it, limp, and hope for some sort of cramp in the night which will loosen it enough to begin recovering. At least I only had to schlep my laptop one way today, as I planned ahead to come into the office today and tomorrow given yesterday's PTO. The other issue is my occasional insomnia, which made it pretty difficult to stay awake at my desk. But I really didn't have a choice, and there was enough to keep me occupied (plus at least one caffeinated beverage). Are you ready for a Hallowe'en light show? Just check out this Laughing Squid post that covers all five stages of the performance. I feel like I'm not quite ready for Hallowe'en yet; maybe when the temps dip a little.

Silly Site o' the Day

The drive to and from Mom's rehab place was fairly uneventful. We got confirmation from the social worker that she's definitely being moved into the long-term care center on Thursday afternoon, which news I duly relayed to my brothers in the lands of ice and fire. The move will be supervised by my CA bro flying in tomorrow, while I go back into Manhattan for the next couple of days. Even though the drive was a bit over an hour each way, the rehab room has only one chair and is pretty uncomfortable so both Robin and I are in a lot of pain now, and I can hardly walk on my right leg, which of course took the brunt of the driving. Meanwhlie, because it's still That Time of Year (and yes, the foliage is spectacular in the NJ mountains!), here's some creative pumpkin work:

Via Laughing Squid.

Silly Site o' the Day

As you might imagine, I got very little sleep last night after being awakened by the news about Mom. Fortunately things have now settled back to whatever the new normal is, she's back at the rehab center, and my brother made his flight after all to the land of northern lights. I let my folks know I'd be out tomorrow as originally planned, and made it through the workday with about an hour or so of dozing in the recliner in between tasks. All is about as in readiness as it can be for tomorrow's journey. And I really am looking forward to driving in the beautiful foliage, if nothing else. But other than that I'm ill prepared for Hallowe'en; I don't even have my jet pack costume ready yet! Also, I don't think the weather got the memo, as it reached near 80 degrees today and is slated to be even warmer tomorrow...

Silly Site o' the Day

A much-needed reset day, and I needed one where I did absolutely nothing. The Mets gave it their all but I don't think anything's going to stop the Dodgers, who now face the other New York baseball team in the World Series. But the significant thing was, right after I'd toked a bit and was in bed, I got a text then call from my brother that my mom had taken another fall, this time from her bed at the rehab center, and was at a nearby hospital. Turned out to be a nasty facial bruise but, near as the doctors can tell, nothing more serious. But quite the scare, during which tons of stuff went through my head all starting with "this is the beginning of the end, my life will now change completely again." After the scare, my brother is still planning his vacation out of the country this week, my other brother is coming in from CA on Wednesday night and will move Mom from rehab to her long-term care home on Thursday, and I'll be visiting her on Tuesday. Could life please be a bit less complicated next time? Like, the history of jack cheese or something?:

Via Laughing Squid.

Silly Site o' the Day

Even though there's tons of noisy work right outside my home office, in the patch of "no man's land" (which some man seems to have claimed now, and has razed the lovely plant life in an apparent plan to pave paradise and put in a parking lot), we have no plans this weekend to go anywhere - not to Mom, not to New York Comic Con, not to see any foliage since it's all around us now anyway - except food shopping and to the local Optimum store so Robin could transfer his phone number from his old iPhone to his new one (which has an e-sim and apparently has more stringent security measures). I bought tons of beans for the bean salad I'm hoping to make for next Saturday's annual college frat reunion, but of course so much depends on Mom. And my stomach. Good job I didn't attempt to go see my comic industry friends! Besides which, even the thought of crowded indoor spaces still freaks me out a bit. Interestingly, Nature's Dick Pics doesn't freak me out at all.